Research on complex contagions suggests that individuals need social reinforcement from multiple sources before they are convinced to adopt costly behaviors. We tested the causal foundation of complex contagions in a country-scale viral marketing field experiment. The experiment used a peer...

Very little is known about the efficient collection of fines despite their indispensable contribution to local government budgets. This paper fills an important gap in the literature by studying the effectiveness of deterrence (enforcement) and non-deterrence (social norms) letters that aim to...

Our study explored the effects of rank information on university students by conducting a field experiment using sequential interventions of rank information feedback. The students reacted to the rank information only after receiving a grade evaluation. We found that the effect of rank...

An emerging body of experimental psychology literature suggests that remote work is associated with virtual meeting fatigue and that the camera that is a salient feature of virtual meetings is a leading cause of this fatigue, with a more pronounced effect on women and employees with shorter...

Do information flows matter for remittance behavior? We design and implement a randomized control trial to quantitatively assess the role of communication between migrants and their contacts abroad on the extent and value of remittance flows. In the experiment, a random sample of 1,500 migrants...

Vitamin A deficiency is a widespread public health problem in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper analyzes the impact of a food-based intervention to fight vitamin A deficiency using orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP). We conducted a randomized evaluation of OFSP-related training to female farmers in...

Digital divide initiatives in developing countries are an important avenue for the socio-economic advancement of those countries. Yet, little research has focused on understanding the success of such initiatives. We develop a model of technology use and economic outcomes of digital divide...

Economists have advanced several psychological frictions to explain why many 401(k)-eligible employees undersave for retirement despite generous matching incentives. We provide evidence on four of these frictions through a field experiment randomizing undersaving employees to information- and...

We combine a field experiment with structural estimation to study skill formation in the adolescent years. By randomizing nearly 1,000 adolescents from low-income communities to distinct interventions that lasted 10-11 weeks, we explore novel aspects of the education production function. First,...

This chapter will cover recent research in historical economics that uses ethnographic data and data from surveys and lab experiments. The study of historical economics, particularly outside of non-Western countries, has been constrained by availability of historical data. However, recent work...